Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Synopsis:The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Review:The First 20%This book goes
straight in at the deep end. Abby visits an underground fight with her
BFF America and America’s boyfriend, Shepley. Shepley’s cousin and
flatmate is Travis. Travis wins the fight but not before he hits his
opponent so hard that the blood flies all over Abby’s cardigan forcing
him to look in her direction. As soon as eye contact is made he
approaches her. From here on in Travis and Abby begin their connection.
It’s not a relationship nor is it strictly a friendship but its clear they enjoy
being around one another. Within the first 18% of this book my emotions
were all torn and twisted with the angst and hurt that these two main
characters managed to fling at each other but it was actually enjoyable
that I couldn’t stop at any cost.The Main CharactersAbby has
a past which doesn’t really get discussed in great length until midway
through the book. She’s turned away from her old life and is sincerely
trying to be everything that her old life wasn’t. I liked Abby a lot.
Her weakness wasn’t that she couldn’t resist Travis because she could
and did. Her main weakness was that Travis reminded her so much of her
old life that she began to miss it including the high’s and thrills that
came with it (I won’t tell you what they are for spoilers sake!). Abby
could cope with Travis because she’d lived with people like him all her
life. A very strong character.

Travis is all about the now.
Fighting is something he’s good at, and it helps pay the rent and pay
for all the nice things in life that a student needs. He drinks a lot,
has sex a lot with a different woman every time and seems unable to make
any sort of female emotional connection at all. We find out later why
that is and it isn’t as bad as the story tries to imply. But because of
Abby’s attitude towards him and the fact that she actually seems to
enjoy his company rather than his looks or charm something in Travis
changes. He lets her into his life. But unfortunately his possessiveness
becomes his undoing. Travis isn’t written as a character that you
should really like or hate. Most reviews hate him, others love him.
Either way if his character and attitude affect you then it says
something about the author and her ability to make you feel something.
As I was reading I had a soft spot for him but he is such a dangerous
person I did feel uncomfortable sometimes and worried for Abby. Again,
the Author made me think about what I would do in this scenario…

America
and Shepley are great side characters. America is always there for
Abby, and has been so from Abby’s earlier childhood. Shepley as
America’s boyfriend is also understanding towards America, and the only
one apart from Abby that can aid Travis when things go bad. They also
contribute greatly to the storyline.

The StoryThe plot isn’t a
clear one. Actually there isn’t much of one. It’s mainly about the
journey that Abby takes and about how she and Travis get through their
time together. A few random sub-plots were thrown in that didn’t seem to
fit with the rest of the story. The mobster Benny and her father’s
debt, for one. If her father was such a has-been hot shot I don’t think
this was the best way to experience his vileness towards his daughter.
The next was the fire and Trent’s involvement. The fire I understand but
once everyone was clear with the aftermath of it there didn’t seem to
be a point to Trent being there at all. It could have been anyone.

Overall
I really enjoyed this book. Sometimes it had incredibly painful moments
that caused me to put my hand to my mouth; sometimes I had tears in my
eyes. Personally I love the rich emotion that it drew from me. This is a
very powerful book.